French Revolution of 1848 - The Second Republic

The Second Republic

On 26 February 1848, the liberal opposition came together to organize a provisional government, called the Second Republic. The poet Alphonse de Lamartine was appointed president of the provisional government. Lamartine served as a virtual dictator of France for the next three months. Elections for a Constituent Assembly were scheduled for 23 April 1848. The Constituent Assembly was to establish a new republican government for France. In preparation for these elections, two major goals of the provisional government were universal suffrage and unemployment relief. Universal male suffrage was enacted on 2 March 1848, giving France nine million new voters. As in all other European nations, women did not have the right to vote. However, during this time a proliferation of political clubs emerged, including women's organizations. Relief for the unemployed was achieved, by the provisional government by enactment of the National Workshops, which guaranteed French citizens' "right to work". The "right" of a citizen to work and indeed the National Workshops themselves had been the idea of Jean Joseph Louis Blanc. The National Workshops proved to be an overnight success. By May 1848 the National Workshops were employing 100,000 workers and paying out daily wages of 70,000 livres. In 1848, 479 newspapers were founded. However, there was also a 54% decline in the number of businesses in Paris, as most of the wealthy had left Paris. There was a corresponding decline in the luxury trade and credit became expensive.